


Nothing But Coffee And Strawberry Gummies For 72 Hours (Would Put Anyone In A Bad Mood)

by CuriousKurona



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, hq au week, im so sorry, implied iwaoi, implied kuroken, mentions of the rest of the karasuno boys, this is my first fic ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 03:48:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3713806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriousKurona/pseuds/CuriousKurona
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(For HQ AU Week on tumblr) </p><p>Prompt- Cafe/Coffee Shop AU</p><p>"Yamaguchi Tadashi had, currently, no backbone whatsoever."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing But Coffee And Strawberry Gummies For 72 Hours (Would Put Anyone In A Bad Mood)

**Author's Note:**

> hi!~ hello!!!~ 
> 
> im not very confident in my skills as a fic writer, mainly because i dont think im very good at keeping them in-character... but, i really wanted to participate in HQ AU Week!!!~ so, i hope you enjoy!!!~

Yamaguchi Tadashi had, currently, no backbone whatsoever. 

But he was trying to become stronger, and to not let his anxieties control his life. A big step in his efforts was getting a job at the Karasuno Café, where he would regularly have to interact with customers. The place was such a small hole in the wall that he felt comfortable enough working there; the few local regulars weren’t that intimidating, and were easy to warm up to, as was the encouraging and supportive staff. In fact, another staff member, Asahi, was working through his own anxieties there! It helped him immensely to know that someone else was in the same boat. 

Speaking of Asahi, Tadashi was due to change shifts with him in a few minutes. He put on his uniform apron, and soon enough he was watching the tall man release his long brown hair from his bun and hop into his boyfriend, Nishinoya, 's cherry red convertible.

' _Iike something out of a movie..._ ' Tadashi thought, absent mindedly.  
so, that left him, the owner, another server, the barista, and the cooks.

The owner was a strong and fatherly man named Daichi. He helped around doing odd jobs and reaching tall things, but mainly worked in the back, doing inventory, or taxes, or whatever owner-ly things there were to do, Tadashi figured. He cringed just thinking about all the responsibility that was, and really admired Daichi for being so strong and cool and level-headed.

The barista (who also managed the register on slow days like this one, since the cash register was so close to their station) was a kind man named Sugawara. He was so warm and easy to get along with, that everyone just called him Suga ('sugar' in the staff room, though they only teased half-heartedly).

The cooks were quite an... interesting couple. They worked in the back all day, making the pastries and sandwiches for the cafe- that is, when they weren't arguing. Hinata constantly grew frustrated and indignant about not being able to reach the higher up ingredients he needed on the shelves, and Kageyama was simply too impatient and grumpy to deal with Hinata's childish nature. 

Despite that, though, on the shifts (or if they were lucky, whole days) that both Hinata and Kageyama came in focused and in the zone about their cooking, they made some of the most divine foods Tadashi had ever had the privilege to taste-test. And he wasn't exaggerating in the slightest- his stomach growled just thinking about it.

Separated from the queue of busy coffee drinkers and muffins behind glass windows, was a calmer, more café-like area, with actual tables, chairs, and even a menu that listed sandwiches and cakes. That was where he and his fellow server Yachi would be working for the next three hours.

Yachi was a short energetic bundle of blonde hair, smiles, and contagious excitement. She was a pleasure to work with, and a great friend after-hours. Though he had only known her for a relatively short amount of time, he always felt at ease around her. 

At the moment, however, he felt anything but at ease.

Since they were such a small, inconspicuous joint, lots of little gangs of high-schoolers often tried to make the cafe their little hideout. Which was fine, it was an understandable and welcome fact that little cafés like this one were often getaways and calm places for people to unwind at at the end of the day. Nothing wrong with a group of friends wanting to hang out there after school or on weekends. 

The problem was groups of kids like the ones that had just walked in, slamming the door and stomping their boots to the café section while howling at some joke told before they walked in.

The kinds of kids that spoke too loud and made a huge mess and were rude to the staff and the other customers. 

It’s not like he was that much older than them. The oldest out of the whole staff was Daichi, at 28, and he himself had just turned 20 the previous month. But, instead of sympathizing with their youth, it just made the group of highschoolers (third years, probably) that much more terrifying. He'd much rather deal with someone much older or younger than someone around his age. Thankfully, instead of waiting to be served like the comfortable campers who brought their laptops and projects in, they impatiently barked Suga their orders before plopping their asses down... at a table in his section. He sighed. At least he didn't have to serve them. They would be ignored to the best of his ability.

A few more customers were coming in, catching up with the small lunch rush they had on the slow day. He quickly swept over the rest of the room, taking and dishing orders. They had a very diverse array of customers. 

A bored looking boy playing games on his phone met his friend’s cat-like grin with a glare, after hearing he ordered the flan pudding. Must have been an inside joke.

Another set of bickering friends to his left, one desperately trying to take selfies with the other, to no avail. Their friend simply swatted them away, yelling about how he never came out in the picture anyways.

Tadashi nearly jumped when he heard the shrill "don’t be so mean, iwa-chan!!!” 

Only about 30-40 minutes had passed when he had no more customers to serve in his designated section, and the rowdy group of third-years had gotten louder by the minute, clearly disrupting the other customers- throwing sugar packets and acting like they owned the place.

He really didn’t want to get involved, but looking around, who else could?

Yachi's section was currently swamped with a large party of eight, some study group or something pulling an all-nighter there.

Sugawara, managing both the coffee orders and the register, would be busy as well.

And Hinata and Kageyama were the cooks, he couldn't ask them to leave the kitchen!

He really didn’t want to be a burden to anyone anymore, he wanted to handle this on his own... but they just seemed so scary.

While having the internal struggle of 'ok I have to do this' vs 'but I might freaking piss myself if I have to go over there I really don’t want to please don’t make me', he noticed one of the girls taking a large swig from a suspicious looking paper bag.

With that, his mind was made up. Alcohol was not allowed in this establishment, Daichi made that very clear.

With as much courage as he could muster, he strided over to their table.  
"E-excu--"

"We already got our food, don’t bother serving us." one of them dismissed quickly, giving him an annoyed glance before returning to the conversation he had, apparently, interrupted.

He tried again.

"Um, I’m sorry, but--"

" _What_!?" One of the taller boys from the back snapped his head at them, pissed off at his repeated interruptions. Tadahi would have flinched and looked around to see if people were staring, but at this point he knew no one would. They had nearly been at that noise level for the duration of their stay, so no one noticed anything out of the ordinary when he shouted, the entire group zoned out as annoying background noise for the rest of the customers. Tadashi knew he was being a bit extreme when he thought that he wished someone would turn around, _so at least there would be witnesses_ , but he seriously felt that he might die at that point.

"I, I just, I noticed that, that you were drinking alcohol." Now that he was closer, he was sure of it- they positively reeked of beer.

"That, that isn’t allowed here"  
he finished with a gulp.

The kids took a moment to process what he had just said, before absolutely howling with laughter. Wailing, clutching their sides, and eventually wiping their tears, the same boy who had snapped at him earlier - their leader (???) apparently-, leaned over his friends to get in his face.

"So, what are you gonna do about it -hic-, freckles?"

That sent the group into another fit of laughter, and Tadashi could not comprehend what was so funny. I mean, okay, they were laughing at his freckles, that hurt, but what about when he had first approached them? None of what was happening was funny enough to warrant such excessive and intense laughter. And then, it clicked.

They were drunk.

They weren’t just _starting_ to drink alcohol; they had been, since they got there probably. In Tadashi's mind, it made them about a hundred times scarier.

"Um, well, if you don’t put it away, im goingg-going to have to ask you... to leave"

The leader(?)'s attitude shifted from a giddy drunk to an angry drunk in two seconds flat. He grabbed Tadashi up by his collar.

"We aint leavin just cause some uptight p -hic- prick like yous says we gotta"

Tadashi didn't know what to do. Being grabbed and yelled at like that just brought up a whole new rush of painful memories, older kids pushing him around, making him eat dirt, calling him ugly and weird. He didn't like this one bit. 

He froze, stammering out a quick "I’m sorry, b-but, rules are r-...rules. You need to leave... n...now, please." and regret about this whole situation hit him hard. Or maybe that was just his ass hitting the ground. A few people in their area started to turn to look at them when he was roughly shoved away, flailing wildly as he tripped over a chair behind him and fell backwards. He scrunched up his face, eyes shut bracing for impact, but even though he had already made his landing, he didn’t dare open them. He was covered in something. Something wet, and hot. Scalding, actually. He hissed in pain as he opened his eyes, finding that he was sitting in a puddle of hot coffee (maybe a latte? Hot cocoa? There was whipped cream. Did it even matter at this point though???). He must have knocked it off a customer’s table on his way down, if his banged up elbow was any tell. 

This, of course, sent the whole crew into yet another riot. He spied a few of the other customers giggling at his expense, as well. A lot of customers, it seemed. He was close to tears, honestly. He thought he was done being pushed around and humiliated like this. 

He probably would have just sat in that puddle, flustered and frozen until closing time, if it hadn't been for the loud screech of someone abruptly standing out of their chair. He could feel their footsteps coming closer, from Yachi’s side of the café. Apparently part of the large study group Yachi was constantly going over to for coffee refills.  
He was really tall, and kind of scary looking. He had glasses though, which, in Tadashi’s opinion, made him look kind of like a nerd. Not any less scary, though- he would never say that in front of him. Yeah. He was a big scary blonde nerd.

“Would you _shut up_ ,” he said in a low, seething voice, silencing everybody in the café as he strode up to the leader(?). He grabbed the boy by his hair, with both hands, looking as if he wanted to crush his skull right then and there.

“in case you haven’t _fucking_ noticed, _some of us_ have projects we are trying to finish by tomorrow, and we would like to _fucking_ concentrate, you _insufferable shitloaf_ ,” that was about as far as he got before his friend, a black haired girl who also had glasses pulled him back.

“… I would apologize for his behavior, but you deserved it” was all she had to say to the gaping third-years, before she turned and knelt down to Tadashi’s level, careful not to soak the knees of her lavender track pants in the coffee.

“I do apologize to you, though. It seems he scared you even more than you already were. Sorry. He’s been running on nothing but coffee and strawberry gummies for the past few days trying to finish this project. Working in a place like this, I assume you’ve seen your fair share of students in the same boat, so I hope you can understand.”

“O-oh, yeah, yeah! S-sorry, it was my… I mean, yeah. Thanks.” He muttered lamely.

Suddenly, Yachi appeared, stars in her eyes. She didn’t say anything, but it was completely obvious (at least to the people who knew her and her mannerisms) that she was blown away by how cool this girl was, and that she was head over heels in love. Well, crush. Same-same but different. 

The entire café’s attention was currently on them, and so the little gang took that opportunity to scram with their tails between their legs.  


“Thank you so much!~” Yachi squealed. “Really, thank you thank you, it took forever for those guys to leave! Oh, and thanks for helping our Tadashi here, too! Haha! He sure was in a pinch!~” By her words she seemed to be addressing Tall Blonde and Nerdy, but her attention and body were both turned towards the black haired girl with glasses. Before she began to ramble, she created an exit for herself (ahhh, she could feel herself getting sweaty—pretty girls made her nervous).

“As thanks, you and your party don’t have to pay a cent!~ I’m sure Daichi won’t mind!~ I’ll go to the register right now! Be back in a bit!!!~”

Tadashi gaped at her as she left, not sure what would come of her bold move. 

The glasses girl turned to Tall Blonde and Nerdy. “Tsukki--“

Yachi ducked her head back in “ah, what is your name? I mean, I need to know the name of your party”

The girl smiled. “it’s under my name, Kiyoko.”

Yachi beamed “That’s such a pretty name! M-mines Yachi, in case you were wondering. Okay, I’ll be back in a bit!~” And she ducked back out.

Kiyoko turned back to ‘Tsukki’.

“I’m going to rejoin the group. Take a minute to calm down, okay?” And with that, she started walking away.

The situation had simmered down; no one was really paying attention anymore. But Tadashi was still sitting in a puddle of coffee, and felt kind of sticky. ‘Tsukki’ appeared to be taking a few calming breaths, and actually yawned, before turning to look down at Tadashi. They kind of just stared at each other in mutual unspoken curiosity, and unwillingness to speak to one another. Staring at him seemed to have calmed him down, because ‘Tsukki’ gave a small smirk, and a look that said ‘you look ridiculous’. Instead of saying that, though, he simply asked, “Aren’t you going to clean up?”

Tadashi jolted upwards “Ah! Yeah! I’ll go r-“ but before he could finish his sentence, he was falling, again. His hands had failed to support his weight in his attempt to get up, instead slipping in the coffee.

Two arms caught him before he could hit the ground a second time.

“Ah, thanks, Tsukki!”

‘Tsukki’ dropped Tadashi.

**Author's Note:**

> aaaah, the prompt is late and i just wanted to get this submitted, so i ended it there.
> 
> my tumblr is curiouskurona.tumblr.com, if anyone wanted to know!!!~  
> this is un-beta'd and done in between classes and at 1am, so please tell me if there are any mistakes so i can fix them! 
> 
> Also, i have certain lines italicized but in the drafts and preview they arent??? *cries* i know nothing abt publishing fics at all, i hope it comes out right...  
> bye-bye!~
> 
> EDIT: i got the html working!!!~ everything that should be italicized should be italicized now...
> 
> Be Good, Stay Cute, I Love You!!!~


End file.
